Tsinghua Bamboo Slips and the Reconstruction of Xia History
The discovery of rich materials on Xia history in Tsinghua bamboo slips has opened up a new realm of reconstructing Xia civilization.Like the passed down literature,it is a late emerged historical material generated from oral legends.According to the historical rules of Ranke's historiography,the reliability of such non original materials is greatly questionable.In the 1920s and 1930s,Doubting Antiquity School used the limitations of legendary materials to propose the popular theory of layer by layer causing ancient Chinese history,portraying Xia dynasty history as a pile of legends and false forgery.However,their evidence is not dense,logic is not smooth.It cannot withstand the verification of the newly released Xia historical materials in Tsinghua bamboo slips,and cannot support the academic building established by the Doubting Antiquity School.The study of ancient history is a very special field,and the research method of abandoning legendary materials in Ranke's historiography may not be applicable.No matter how early or late legendary literature is formed,or how many problems it has,the quality of objective history and the particles of factual truth in it cannot be completely denied solely by subjective doubt.Only by adhering to the principle of combining literature and archaeological materials and categorizing them as one can we truly reconstruct the"rich and glorious"history of Xia dynasty civilization.
Tsinghua bamboo slipreconstruction of Xia historyDoubting Antiquity Schoollegends and historical materials
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